Well we had a wet second half to Christmas day and a totally wet Boxing day (but I did get a chance to get to the bench!) and my alarm is set for 0400 for a return to work tomorrow which will take me through to NYE, ho hum and poor me and all that other stuff!
So I'm pretty sure this will be my last post for '09. I hope that everyone had a good Christmas and that you will all have a hoot of a NYE celebration, or a quiet one, whatever your preference may be. Mine will be spent on the harbour bridge, yes the one in Sydney, making sure it doesn't burst into flames during and after the fire works. Believe it or not there is a lot of timber in the old girl. They don't even stop the trains anymore !
Sound exciting? I can assure you that the 'side on' view from the south pylon is not all that wonderful, but the explosions set off from the tops of surrounding buildings near the Quay aren't too bad!
Not that much activity on the bench of late, I think I slipped into bit of a rut on the motivation road. 3265 was finally programmed and tested on Werris Ck last Fri and my first foray into DCC sound decoder installation was a success in as far as it made all the right noises, moved forwards and backwards and emitted no green smoke, always a plus. It did show me that there is a lot more work to do before delivery. Extra pick ups will have to be fabricated and fitted to the tender (which I have done, pics to follow) and the loco as well. 'Through the body' connection cannot be relied on to get the signals from the track to the decoder. Stay tuned. The decoder and speaker has been removed from the tender and it will be off to the paint shop next year.
The LED headlight install, from a previous post, failed as I could not get the 3mm led to fit in the headlight housing. Will be switching to a 1mm flat LED as described in Ray's AMRM article.
The cave is dead in the water at the moment, till early Jan, when the local concrete plant fires up again, aiming for a slab pour in early Jan if I can coerce the council to do a pre pour inspection during January.
Well thats about it. Looking forward to catching up and reading up during '10. Cheers.
27.12.09
3.12.09
Cave update
Couple of progress pics from the cave project.
After knocking over the formwork in a day, the back filling started. The slope of the block was greater than I had guess-t-mated so this entailed extra form work and steel as well as a healthy amount of back fill material so as not to take out a second mortgage for concrete.
Cost to date:
Shed (walls, roof, ent door, guttering etc, gyprock batons and roof insulation - $5400
Timber for formwork and other hardware - $650
Roll of plastic - $75
Steel reo and other bits - $595
Fill material (approx 8 ton) - 1 carton of Carlton Cold + delivery $75 ??
According to an online concrete calculator Im up for about 8 cubic meters of concrete.
You can tell by the length of the shadows in the last pic this was a loooooong day. I'm going inside for a shower and something cold !!!
After knocking over the formwork in a day, the back filling started. The slope of the block was greater than I had guess-t-mated so this entailed extra form work and steel as well as a healthy amount of back fill material so as not to take out a second mortgage for concrete.
Cost to date:
Shed (walls, roof, ent door, guttering etc, gyprock batons and roof insulation - $5400
Timber for formwork and other hardware - $650
Roll of plastic - $75
Steel reo and other bits - $595
Fill material (approx 8 ton) - 1 carton of Carlton Cold + delivery $75 ??
According to an online concrete calculator Im up for about 8 cubic meters of concrete.
You can tell by the length of the shadows in the last pic this was a loooooong day. I'm going inside for a shower and something cold !!!
17.11.09
32 bits and pieces.
Now that the paint shop has closed after all the work orders have been filled it's back to the 'Large' for some more work on the 32, Which I have been advised will be numbered 3265 and plated "Hunter" in honour of it's recently 'reborn' big cousin.
This pic shows the headlight, after it's return from the milling shop, having been bored out to allow fitting of the 3 mm yellow gold LED from Gywdir Valley Models. Initially I though with a headlight body this size I would be fitting the 5mm LED, not so. Even the 3 mm had to have the front filed a little to fit. I drilled two small holes in the rear of the head light and poked the terminals from the LED through, making sure that they did not touch the headlight body anywhere and then put a large drop of 'liquid insulation tape' into the headlight from the front and poked the LED through. As the terminals passed through the holes they dragged some insul-goop with them and insulated the terminals from the headlight body. After sitting in the vice for a while the goop went 'off' and the LED now sits securely in the headlight. Later I will fill the gap with clear resin to give it the glazed look. I will clip the terminals as close as I dare and fit leads to run back to the decoder prior to fitting the headlight to the loco smoke box.
Work on the tender included the fitting of additional pickups, as Ray Pilgrim did on 3822 (see other post), to ensure better signal to the decoder, using 0.5mm phospher bronze spring wire and soldered to the underside of the bogie spreader. The bogies a electrically connected via the black wire you can see passing over the speaker grill, simply by soldering this to the top of the bogie spreader. This wire was purchased at Casula Hobbies and is from the DCC manufacturer TCS, it is 36 gauge ! very fine stuff.
I have since fitted the motor and gearbox to the loco, connected the motor wires and the pickup wires to the tender and the locomotive frame as well. All being well 3265 should have its first test run very soon. Unlike it's larger cousin the last thing I want to see is any smoke when I open up the 'throttle'.
This pic shows the headlight, after it's return from the milling shop, having been bored out to allow fitting of the 3 mm yellow gold LED from Gywdir Valley Models. Initially I though with a headlight body this size I would be fitting the 5mm LED, not so. Even the 3 mm had to have the front filed a little to fit. I drilled two small holes in the rear of the head light and poked the terminals from the LED through, making sure that they did not touch the headlight body anywhere and then put a large drop of 'liquid insulation tape' into the headlight from the front and poked the LED through. As the terminals passed through the holes they dragged some insul-goop with them and insulated the terminals from the headlight body. After sitting in the vice for a while the goop went 'off' and the LED now sits securely in the headlight. Later I will fill the gap with clear resin to give it the glazed look. I will clip the terminals as close as I dare and fit leads to run back to the decoder prior to fitting the headlight to the loco smoke box.
Work on the tender included the fitting of additional pickups, as Ray Pilgrim did on 3822 (see other post), to ensure better signal to the decoder, using 0.5mm phospher bronze spring wire and soldered to the underside of the bogie spreader. The bogies a electrically connected via the black wire you can see passing over the speaker grill, simply by soldering this to the top of the bogie spreader. This wire was purchased at Casula Hobbies and is from the DCC manufacturer TCS, it is 36 gauge ! very fine stuff.I have since fitted the motor and gearbox to the loco, connected the motor wires and the pickup wires to the tender and the locomotive frame as well. All being well 3265 should have its first test run very soon. Unlike it's larger cousin the last thing I want to see is any smoke when I open up the 'throttle'.
12.11.09
From the paint shop (Plow vans 2)
From my previous plow van post here is the just about finished items plus NQOY kit from Casula Hobbies (waiting on decals for it).The two plow vans actually share the same coding (NZBF) but are from different periods. The blue one being the later version. This was finished in Railey Paints FreightRail Blue enamel and Bakers Grotty Black enamel with the handrails done in Floquil Reefer White laquer and finished off with Dulcote.
The older plow was finished in Bakers PerWay Cream and Old Black enamel and weathered with a mix Humbrol brown and a dash of orange for that western NSW look, as per the supplied photo in the kit. All the handrails and roof plumbing are scratch built from .05 brass wire and primed with etch primer first. The NQOY was grey primed first, then some Grotty Black, some FreightRail Blue and weathered with Humbrol brown. After decaling it will be Dulcoted.
Hopefully now I can get stuck into the 32 and get it into service!
7.11.09
Its arrived !!!
Just after I said "not much to report" it's turned up! Crawled into bed just after 7am, after night shift and about 7.30 Francine says "I think your shed's here" Well that's worth getting up for!...I think?
Well that's it, can't say I can see 5 1/2 K in that little pile of bits but time will tell. I should mention that there is an entry door kit, 4 boxes of hardware and the insulation just out of shot, but still! Now where did I leave that concrete trowel??
Well that's it, can't say I can see 5 1/2 K in that little pile of bits but time will tell. I should mention that there is an entry door kit, 4 boxes of hardware and the insulation just out of shot, but still! Now where did I leave that concrete trowel??
31.10.09
October 'roundup'
Not to be confused with the bovine kind or the herbicide, but thought I should throw something in before the end of the month just to keep my monthly average up. No pics to offer this time.
The 'Colourbond Cave'
Not much to report here. The kit won't arrive for another couple of weeks yet. Still toying with the idea of doing the slab myself. I have actually poisioned the grass were it will go so I suppose that constitutes a start ??. Hoping for a pre Christmas lockup.
Onthe Bench
Got some paint and decals on the plow vans from the previous post. Waiting for some FreightRail blue to come in. Have given the Runway13 compressor a workout. What a good thing. Had the opportunity to try one of Peter's double action airbrushes out at Liverpool, something I had always been apprehensive about, and I'm a convert. Sorry Paasche H, the future is not looking good!
Some wiring on the 32 has been done. What I'm starting to realise is that once I wire up the decoder I wont be able to separate engine and tender to I might have to some painting first. Headlight has bee bored out to accept LED. Not as much room in there as I thought, turning out to be a little more difficult than first thought.
The Liverpool Exhibition (and the 38's)
Like many I attended this modeling and spend-fest. Helping out on the Eureka stand on Sat and Mon whilst still getting a look around and giving Ron an occasional break. Nothing new here, been doing this for several years now but this year was a bit different - the 38's are here ! Such a variation in reactions from the punters. A few had to be reassured they were not dreaming and that the ones on display were actually for sale! I think the thing that amazed me the most was the number of conversations that started with "I've heard a rumor..." or "Someone told me that...". Some so concerned with number of alleged "defects" they almost needed counseling!
The major source of all this reliable information - on-line news groups or forums. According to a reliable source, I don't go near the things, there was in excess of 70 pages of discussion on the quality and performance of the product even before the first pre production models existed and before the actual models available for retail arrived it pipped the 100 mark.
No one would argue that with such an iconic loco as the NSWGR 38 class Pacific the rivet counters were always going to have a field day. I often wonder if those that choose to take a dump on a particular product or manufacturer ever consider the consequences of converting every thought that pops into their head into a post on a forum or, dare I say, a blog! I'll go out on a limb here and say that less than 1% of these geniuses would have even the faintest idea what it takes to turn an idea into a sellable, working model, that will run well on a variety layouts (the variety I'm referring to is track specs) and not just look pretty on a shelf.
Most reports coming in are positive. The performance is petty well prototypical in terms of load versus grade and the sound is genuine. This statement is actually based on fact! I have seen, and heard, Eureka 38's performing duty on Werris Ck. Hauling 5 (6 at a pinch!) Lima passenger cars up 1:40 curved grades. Five of our Friday nighters' took delivery of their 38's and every one was given a test run, without problems.
It has been along wait, 1 month short of 5 years actually, but I think it has been worth it. Ron's motto during this time has been "Do you want it now, or do you want it right". Well done Ron and good luck with the rest of the projects.
That'll do. Got to remember this is a post, not a novel.
Cheers.
The 'Colourbond Cave'
Not much to report here. The kit won't arrive for another couple of weeks yet. Still toying with the idea of doing the slab myself. I have actually poisioned the grass were it will go so I suppose that constitutes a start ??. Hoping for a pre Christmas lockup.
Onthe Bench
Got some paint and decals on the plow vans from the previous post. Waiting for some FreightRail blue to come in. Have given the Runway13 compressor a workout. What a good thing. Had the opportunity to try one of Peter's double action airbrushes out at Liverpool, something I had always been apprehensive about, and I'm a convert. Sorry Paasche H, the future is not looking good!
Some wiring on the 32 has been done. What I'm starting to realise is that once I wire up the decoder I wont be able to separate engine and tender to I might have to some painting first. Headlight has bee bored out to accept LED. Not as much room in there as I thought, turning out to be a little more difficult than first thought.
The Liverpool Exhibition (and the 38's)
Like many I attended this modeling and spend-fest. Helping out on the Eureka stand on Sat and Mon whilst still getting a look around and giving Ron an occasional break. Nothing new here, been doing this for several years now but this year was a bit different - the 38's are here ! Such a variation in reactions from the punters. A few had to be reassured they were not dreaming and that the ones on display were actually for sale! I think the thing that amazed me the most was the number of conversations that started with "I've heard a rumor..." or "Someone told me that...". Some so concerned with number of alleged "defects" they almost needed counseling!
The major source of all this reliable information - on-line news groups or forums. According to a reliable source, I don't go near the things, there was in excess of 70 pages of discussion on the quality and performance of the product even before the first pre production models existed and before the actual models available for retail arrived it pipped the 100 mark.
No one would argue that with such an iconic loco as the NSWGR 38 class Pacific the rivet counters were always going to have a field day. I often wonder if those that choose to take a dump on a particular product or manufacturer ever consider the consequences of converting every thought that pops into their head into a post on a forum or, dare I say, a blog! I'll go out on a limb here and say that less than 1% of these geniuses would have even the faintest idea what it takes to turn an idea into a sellable, working model, that will run well on a variety layouts (the variety I'm referring to is track specs) and not just look pretty on a shelf.
Most reports coming in are positive. The performance is petty well prototypical in terms of load versus grade and the sound is genuine. This statement is actually based on fact! I have seen, and heard, Eureka 38's performing duty on Werris Ck. Hauling 5 (6 at a pinch!) Lima passenger cars up 1:40 curved grades. Five of our Friday nighters' took delivery of their 38's and every one was given a test run, without problems.
It has been along wait, 1 month short of 5 years actually, but I think it has been worth it. Ron's motto during this time has been "Do you want it now, or do you want it right". Well done Ron and good luck with the rest of the projects.
That'll do. Got to remember this is a post, not a novel.
Cheers.
8.10.09
Plow Vans
Almost ready to head for the paint shop (and an excuse to christen the new air compressor from Runway 13 !) are NZBF 1041F and BBP 1049X. These two wagons represent the same plow van at different stages of its life. Pretty much the same under frame with revised body arrangements. They were an integral part of most ballast trains and ran to every corner of the state, so would be at home on just about any layout with only the type being era specific.I've had a temporary secondment from the Large Erecting Shop over to the Wagon Works and two wagons that are way past their contracted delivery date have been brought to my attention.
These fellows are both Hanovale kits, which are currently 'off line' at the moment and not producing, whilst these are not, in my opinion, high quality castings, Hanovale produce a line of products which fill a market segment which is, generally, not served by another producer in terms of individual models. I hope Hanovale comes to a point where production can commence again in the near future.
These kits both require a fair amount of patience and a light touch as the chosen material is quite brittle and does not respond well to a 'blacksmiths' approach. Whilst excess flash on the resin castings is not a problem there is some on the small white metal/pewter castings (steps) which must be removed with great care with a fine file. The resin body castings required some filler but not a great deal which was pleasing for this type of casting material as well as a fair amount of sanding with some fine wet and dry to remove molding imperfections and blemishes. A better model would have resulted from some more under floor detail (brake gear) cast separately in another material rather than 'half casting' as part of the floor.
Some skill with the soldering iron is required in both cases, particularly in the case of the hand rails for the NZBF. Hanovale has included a jig for these hand rails and it works quite well despite looking a touch confusing initially. I used Zap CA for assembly which resulted in almost permanently connected fingers a couple of times but it bonds the material well. The roof on the BBP was over length and required a 'cut and shut' to bring it into size with the body. I used my recently acquired Proxxon 58mm table saw which did a near perfect job. When it came time to join the two roof halves together again, the joint required almost no filler. Proxxon makes some great gear. Check them out.
These are definately 'modellers models' and not for the beginner, careful reading of the instructions in required, but these also include a fair bit of prototype info as well. Whilst they do require a fair amount of work, this, in my my view, is a plus. The finished product will reflect the amount of time, care and effort you put in and refine (or wake up!) your modelling skills and that has to be a good thing.If you have some of these kits in storage they may become 'collectable' if Hanovale does not start up again, which I hope they do. Dig 'em out, dust 'em off and get modelling!
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